Beware...a serious fucking post about beauty is about to hit you over the head...
if you chose to read on...& I don't blame you if you don't want to read it...
it's long & maybe not that interesting...I do not know what's gotten into me
...I've just been thinking about it a bit lately.
Why? I don't know... I truly believe beauty comes from within...as
I get to know & really connect with someone...they ALWAYS become beautiful
to me.

IF YOU CAN'T ENDURE READING THIS WHOLE DAMN
THING...JUST READ THE QUOTES AT THE END
(consider it a favor to me)...THEY SAY IT ALL ANYWAY...

Did you know that Dove is running a global ad promo called Campaign for Real Beauty? They claim to be making a worldwide effort "to show a new, wider definition of beauty".

They wanted the study to assess whether it was possible to think about
female beauty in ways that were more authentic, satisfying &
empowering:

"The overwhelming majority of women (despite the popularity of Extreme
Makeover) do not wish to expose themselves to the surgeon's scalpel.
But neither do they wish to be excluded because they fail to find their
beauty reflected in the images which bombard them, on average, in 2000
advertisements per week. What women in this study tell us is that a
sense of legitimacy & respect is wrapped up with beauty in today's world.
Whether this sentiment dismays or delights us, it poses a serious
challenge... for the idea of beauty to become truly democratic & inclusive,
then beauty itself must be revitalized to reflect women in their beauty
as they really are rather than as portrayed in the current fictions
that dominate our visual culture. With such fictions removed, the many
hours of anguish, spent in self criticism, or in the attempt to reshape
themselves so that they do in some ways resemble the ideal, have a
chance to be freed up & find expression in the many other desires &
ambitions that women hold. "

Yeah...whatever...they make some valid points here...but I believe they
will only stick with it...if it sells products...she said cynically...

"Beauty is how you feel inside & it reflects in your eyes. It is not
something physical."

~Sophia Loren

"But beauty itself is not given to us by anyone; it is a power we have
within us ... a radiance inside us."

~Marianne Williamson